On Sun, 2026-04-12 at 14:07 -0700, Edward Murphy via agora-discussion wrote: > Proto-Proposal: Pig Pen > (AI = whatever) > > Create a rule titled <something> with Power <1.7? 2?> and this text: > > <X> is a player switch with values <Y> (default) and <Z>. > > A player CAN flip eir <X> from <Y> to <Z> by announcement. > > A player CAN flip eir <X> from <Z> to <Y> if e has been <Z> for > least three months. > > If a <Z> player commits an infraction, all players SHOULD note it > (if not already noted), and the Investigator SHOULD assign as > large a penalty as possible when investigating it. > > [An attempt to make Referee more interesting without generating too many > bad feelings: the law only throws the book at you if you volunteered > for it. Optionally add some incentive, e.g. make this a third way to > gain a White Ribbon.]
We could try bringing back the Pariah (summary: elected office, you get blots upon gaining the office, you get penalised even for crimes that normally wouldn't be penalised, and if you ever clear all the blots while holding the office you win). I originally came up with the idea as part of a bigger plan, but it turned out to be interesting on its own (generating some interesting CFJs despite never actually getting close to a win). One potential problem is that it tends to encourage doing as little as possible and taking on as few responsibilities as possible to make avoiding crimes easier; that wasn't a problem the first time around but could become a problem if players took the subgame seriously. Referee is an interesting office because most of the time nothing is happening, and some of the time you get lots of pseudo-CFJs thrusted upon you. Agora has been remarkably law-abiding recently, though; and when an infraction is committed, players seem unwilling to note it even if it would likely be given a zero-Blot penalty. (Such penalties are still relevant in that they increase the minimum penalty for future Crimes, but it's been a while since someone committed a large number of Crimes in quick succession.) Also worth noting: there was a semi-recent era in which we rewarded players for doing the equivalent of noting an infraction, but this created problems of its own (leading to a race to be the first to note infractions, meaning tha timing snipes became too valuable). -- ais523 Referee
